I used to teach a class in the summer, and every year I'd have the students go see the same movie, and we'd discuss the soundtrack and use of sound effects in class. Well, it's "summer blockbuster" time again...have you heard any good movie soundtracks or sound effects yet? Anything that made you go "wow, that sure was great sound/music"?

"The Million Dollar Hotel" is a must-rent. Lyrics by Salmon Rushdie, sung by Bono...oh, deep, man. Starring Mel Gibson, Milla Jovovich, Jeremy Davies (you have to see his performance to believe it - the biggest leap in film acting since Brando's "Streetcar..."), Jimmy Smits (in a hilarious comic role), Julian Sands (who has an excellent monologue in the film expounding on the fine line between "art" and "garbage")...it's the quirky art film from hell, with a fantastic soundtrack. Two thumbs up.

"The Pledge" directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson, is devastatingly beautiful. It doesn't have a happy ending, but it will hit you hard in your soul. Good for ya once in awhile. Two thumbs up.

"Romeo Is Bleeding" will also break your heart, but a strong heart has been broken a few times, so rent it. You won't notice the soundtrack, and that's what makes it so effective. Starring Gary Oldman and Lena Olin, both turning in scorchingly convincing performances. Two thumbs up.

"Ghost Dog, Way Of The Samurai" starring Forest Whitaker as a mafia hitman, has a fantastic soundtrack produced by RZA of Wu-Tang, and it's a little gem of a film that you'll want to own. Two thumbs up.

A brief list of additional film score favorites in the Curve Lounge CD library...

Originally posted by stanner:~traffic~ music by david torn guitarrorist/looper/composer extrordinaire

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that. It's still playing here. Hollywood movies come a bit later here, dubbed into German. Been watching the summer blockbusters steadily for the last month, the popcorn is terrible but I don't mind.

The Mummy Returns soundtrack? hm...well I enjoyed watching the villainess. There are some fine bits of fx-music in Tomb Raider...Red Planet was a cool but maybe not entirely successful attempt at good old-fashioned "hard sci-fi", the music I'd file under "at least it didn't bug".

I just saw "Brother where art thou" and I have to say that the music is almost another character in the movie. Could almost be considered a musical....but its not. The use of music in this movie is borderline genius.

Originally posted by jackpine:I just saw "Brother where art thou" and I have to say that the music is almost another character in the movie. Could almost be considered a musical....but its not. The use of music in this movie is borderline genius.

I have been waiting VERY patiently to see 'The lord of the rings'. It is supposed to come out next year. It has been in the making for a few years now and it supposed to rival 'Star Wars' in production. Actually the word is it has already spent more than SW on production. Can't wait to hear that Soundtrack. I had a dream as a kid, I wanted to produce that movie. I would spend hours casting it over the years. I had my ideal choices for Aragorn, Gandolf, etc. Still waiting.. The Cool thing is, the whole movie is shot in Europe with mostly unknowns. That movie needed to be produced without any Hollywood. What is it about european movies, they just have more grit.

The Traffic soundtrack is killer, but it's by Cliff Martiniez, not David Torn. David Torn is credited with "textural constructions, guitar." It also features Jeff Rona, Michael Brook, Flea, Herbie Hancock, Alex Acuna, and Paulinho DaCosta.

it's interesting that so many of the movies mentioned are released on DVD.

so, did we see them in the theater and form our opinions - or were our opinions shaped by having a decent audio presentation in our own homes?

fwiw - I haven't seen much in a cold dark room with strangers other than "Memento". In that movie, over the closing credits I think that there is a nice oblique reference to the construction metaphor. David Bowie from the cut-up lyric days. I was amused.

On the flip side, I thought that 'Castaway' brilliantly did not have much of a soundtrack. In fact, all of the music was standard background music until he hit the island. Then there was nothing until Wilson went away. When the music finally came in, it hit me like a ball-peen hammer!

Dancer in the dark:Face it Lars Von Trier can do more with a handful of digital camcorders a dedicated cast than most directors will with the greatest of budgets. I just think this film is cool because its a "musical" and stars bjork who works in a factory and fades into the world of music inspired by industrial noises. Its also cool because Von Trier goes and breaks most of his rules from the dogma school he founded, that is only using handheld camera's and only recording on location using natural lighting recording everything and just hammering away till the cast gets in "the zone". Also, his other work features no music. This film is a "musical":-)However it lacks the power and depth of breaking the waves. Still, its very clever how the sound design of regular scenes is amplified to full blown tunes as bjork escapes her psychotic life. You owe it to yourself to rent this film.

Traffic of course. Also, Schizopolis is a trip. I dont even remember how the sound design and score is, but its just a whacky nutty piece of work. Soderberg is cool because he can just tell some dramatic thrilling story, and in a turn get very experimental.

Also, if your going to consider ghostdog I'd say check out another Jaramouche film, Dead Man. It has to be one of the most poetic films and scores I have ever heard featuring a very lyrical guitar from neil young. Also an influence of Jim Jaramouche is Werner herzog, I know its an old film, but Aguirre the Wrath of God has cool music:-) Dead Man though is a BRILLIANT film, much better than ghost dog.

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To nominate something where I think the soundtrack detracted from the emotional impact of the film, I'd choose "A.I." Like any thirtysomething, I was raised on Star Wars and hate to knock John Williams, but I'm from Vermont and that score was a bigger bucket of sap than I've ever seen hanging on any maple tree. Apart from the issue of whether the movie was good or bad, I just felt it needed something more minimalist in terms of a soundtrack. As it was, the predictable orchestral swells amounted to the film commanding the audience "OK, this is where you're supposed to feel bad for the little cybernetic boy again." A freakin' Danny Elfman soundtrack would've been an upgrade. (Don't get me wrong, I like his work and think that he's been perfect for every film he's scored.) I agree with the positive comments about "Crouching Tiger." To mention a couple of classics, Vangelis' score for "Blade Runner" and Peter Gabriel for "Last Temptation of Christ." Love those.

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Ghost Dog was good. I've been wanting to rent it again.

Where art thou was good, too.

American Beauty had me in love with the xylophone.

Castaway was totally awesome in it's use of silence. It made the island portion perfect. It was a deafining silence.

Proof Of Life had some good stuff going. The Van Morrison song at the end is perfect.

I love a good movie. I hate this shit that some movies do now, though. Where the movie is just a vehicle to sell the soundtrack. They just squeeze in little clips here and there. They are usually placed haphazardly. These types of soundtracks just detract. That is not a soundtrack. That is a fucking advertisment.A soundtrack is supposed to provide emotional emphasis. A great soundtrack can make a good movie great.

Also an influence of Jim Jaramouche is Werner herzog, I know its an old film, but Aguirre the Wrath of God has cool music:-) [/B]

Oh yeah! That's Popol Vuh on the soundtrack and the late great Klaus Kinski in the lead role.

Looks like Hollywood is taking a shot at Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris". I'm on edge about that one, because the original film by Tarkovsky has a fantastic soundtrack, by Edward Artemiev. At any rate it'll be great publicity for Lem- people have been enjoying popular works "influenced" (to use a euphamism) by Lem for half a century, time for the real thing.

Just saw Traffic- yip, good soundtrack, plenty of silent stretches, too. The music was the right "size" for the movie I think, it didn't Mickey Mouse the action or rely on cliched associations and basically just sounded good. The both-sides-of-the-coin/yin-yang/traffic-goes-in-both-directions theme of the film was really well done.

Quote:

Originally posted by Chip McDonald: Allan Holdsworth would be great for that book. I haven't seen the Tarkovsy film, however...

Adrien Belew for "Cybiriad" and Xenakis for "Invincible", yeah!

Tarkovsky's Solaris is probably my favorite movie, certainly has had the most effect on me of any film. The soundtrack is basically synth noisescapes and a Bach chorale prelude.

I believe that Ry Cooder did the music for Southern Comfort, a film about Army Reserve weekend soldiers who tangle with the wrong group of Cajun trappers. It wasn't a hugely popular film, but it's riveting, and the music contributes a lot to the overall backwoods spookiness.

Saw "Pearl Harbor" last night, soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. I have trouble listening to "just" the soundtrack, get too caught up in the movie, but if the music carries/reinforces the emotions, its good (I'm STILL drained from that movie).

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Originally posted by jackpine:I just saw "Brother where art thou" and I have to say that the music is almost another character in the movie. Could almost be considered a musical....but its not. The use of music in this movie is borderline genius.

Buy the soundtrack and read the exquisite liner notes. The music IS another character in the movie, at least in the opinion of the producers. I agree.

I saw Traffic and wholeheartedly agree with previous posters.

But the Holy Grail of sound on picture for me is... Snatch!

This movie must have come and gone so fast I didn't see a single commercial for it. We watched the DVD on the bus (when the gennie was working! Doh!) without the benefit of a decent listening environment or kick butt surround sound system. It still blew me away. They probably won't be spoken in the same breath with "Oscar" next year, but the visual and audio design and editing deserve that award. Hands down. No CG, no futuristic setting to create previously unknown sounds for, but this film is what we all should strive for when dealing with sound to picture.

And the movie is hilarious. If you liked Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty (a couple of other good soundtracks) you'll love this.

If you don't like Brad Pitt (If you flat out HATE Brad Pitt), you'll like him in THIS.

They should direct deposit to my checking account for this lovefest, but I swear, it's everything I've said and more.

Maybe it's all the English and Irish/English accents that are floating my boat...???

Older flicks: Parenthood has an excellent soundtrack (that can usually be had for cutout prices) that is recorded better than most. It's a surprisingly intimate sound for a full orchestra score. Music by Randy Newman. (He sure can write for picture.)

We also watched Forrest Gump. It was the first time I'd seen it since it was released. Great sound and visual.

Slightly off-topic, but one beef I have with movie soundtrack albums is that the music tends to be too repetitive. If you're watching the film, you're not likely to notice that the "My Heart Will Go On" melody is repeated endlessly in the soundtrack for Titanic (although the soundtrack works great in the context of the film). However, if you listen to the soundtrack album from beginning to end, it sounds like one big commercial for the song...

Worse yet, some soundtracks don't play enough music from the movie. For example, I've seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the theater several times and noticed that the soundtrack album cut short the amazing drum-heavy music in the fight scenes. (They use that music at least twice in the film, and it only appears once in the soundtrack in a much-abbreviated version.)

Heck, I could've listened to 72 minutes of just the fight scene music. Anyone have any good CD recommendations for Asian drum music?